Accused ‘should have gotten bail’

Acquitted murder accused Pedro Deroy Ellis should have been released on bail by the Court of Appeal when his appeal stemming from a bail application was deemed successful.

This was the ruling of Justice Cecil McCarthy, who has given the parties a week to submit written submissions on the issue of damages.

“While I am of the view that the bail decision was way in excess of the time it should have been delivered, it is not that that has persuaded the court in the orders that it will make,” he said.

“The court was of the view that Section 13.3 of the Constitution was breached. In other words, once you arrive at a decision that a person’s constitutional right to a fair trial within Section 81 has been breached, which [the State] has conceded without argument, then automatically there is an obligation, not a discretion, under 13.3 (b) to release that person on bail, either unconditionally or with conditions. It is that breach that really is at the core of the decision of the court,” the judge noted.

Ellis, of Morris Gap, Westbury Road, St Michael, had been accused of murdering Antonio Harewood, also from Westbury Road, on May 5, 2013. (HLE)

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